And a fair birthday to you

I would be a poor English lover indeed if I did not recognize the Bard's birthday. I have a love/hate relationship with his work. I love it. And I hate that more people don't.

He added quite a bit to our vernacular. Here are some phrases we still use that first came into being in his plays:
-Sink or swim
-In my mind's eye
-I have not slept one wink
-My heart on my sleeve
-A sorry sight
-All the corners of the world
-Fight fire with fire
-Love is blind
-The game is up
-Vanish into thin air
-Wild goose chase

And because I love his words so much, I leave you with one of my favorites of his sonnets:

Sonnet Number 29
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Happy birthday, Will.